Questions tagged [ipa]
International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA)
117 questions
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What is the difference between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ in British English?
/ʌ/ cut, hut, bun, nothing, love, enough, flood, does
/ʊ/ put, soot, foot, good, look, cook
To me the ʌ is a more short, low front (unrounded?) vowel, but the vowel /ʊ/ which sounds like "uh" is a ...
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American English 'mouse': /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/?
In general American English, is the word 'mouse' pronounced /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/ with an 'æ'? I think it's the latter. Most online dictionaries, even Wiktionary give the former notation. Which is the ...
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The pronunciation of "sciurine" (pertaining to squirrels)
I am intrigued by the pronunciation for the adjective "sciurine", meaning of or pertaining to the the family of Sciuridae (squirrels and similar rodents).
In Wiktionary, the pronunciation in ...
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Is there any online tool to read (pronounce) IPA and APA written words?
I am looking for a tool to read a word written as phonetic transcription (IPA or APA).
I need it to provide users with a tool to verify if they've chosen the correct IPA transcription (users will need ...
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American refusal of the IPA: why?
Are there any historical or political reasons for the rather consistent refusal of the International Phonetic Alphabet on the part of American academics?
Did Mark Twain's home-made-English-spelling-...
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Pronunciation of Emma and Emma's
According to Wiktionary, Emma is pronounced as /ˈɛmə/ but I tend to hear it sounding more like /ˈɛmɑː/. However, when it comes to pronouncing Emma's, I hear it like /ˈɛməz/ and I hear a clear schwa ...
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Opposition between the LOT vowel and the STRUT vowel
I've noticed that some UK accents have the LOT vowel in words like nothing, none or one, whereas others have the STRUT vowel. The Lexico and Cambridge online dictionaries only give the STRUT ...
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Merriam Webster vs Oxford Languages Dictionary phonetic transcriptions of 'man'
I've noticed that in MW words "now" and "man" have the same middle sound (ˈnau̇ vs ˈman), but in Oxford dictionary these two words have two different sounds (naʊ vs mæn). So which ...
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I pronounce initial R's with my upper teeth on the very bottom of my inside lower lip. Not rhotic. What's the IPA for this?
The Wikipedia page "Pronunciation of English /r/" doesn't mention an option for pronouncing R where the upper teeth are really, really at the bottom of the inside lower lip, practically ...
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Anyone else with this place of articulation of their rhotic sound? [duplicate]
As my question implies, I have an unusual manner of articulation for my rhotic sound, and I wonder if anyone else shares it: my rhotic sound is formed by bringing my bottom lip up so that my top teeth ...
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Why do some dictionaries use (lax ɪ) /ɪŋk/ for "~ink" words when the actual pronunciation is (tense i) /iŋk/?
##SOURCES
Words correctly coded tense /i/ sound for "i"
a) routine /ruːˈtiːn/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/routine
b) machine /məˈʃiːn/ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/machine
Words ...
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Are əʊ and oʊ the same?
Are əʊ and oʊ the same?
For example are the following pairs pronounced the same:
/ɡrəʊ/ vs /ɡroʊ/ (grow)
/nəʊ/ vs /noʊ/ (no )
Is there any difference in pronunciation?
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What's the difference between ɔ & ɒ? [duplicate]
What is the difference between ɔ and ɒ? Would bɔl and bɒl both be "ball"? (I'm talking about in standard American English.)
I saw this similar question but it hasn't had any answers for ...
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Do British and American English speakers pronounce /ɪ/ differently?
I'm not a native speaker of English, but I'm pretty fluent in Received Pronunciation.
I've recently noticed that the way Americans make the sound /ɪ/ is different from the way I, and RP speakers in ...
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pronunciation of the 'ous' in dangerous
When I look up the word dangerous, the IPA spellings almost always show up as /ˈdānj(ə)rəs/
Maybe it's regional (Southern Ontario), but I don't encounter that pronunciation lot. And I probably use it ...
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When is it OK to pronounced a voiced th like a /d/ instead of a /ð/?
As I learned in Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? native speakers sometimes pronounce the voiced th as a /d/ instead of a /ð/ like in the words "the", &...
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IPA confusion for 'Aegis'
Merriam-Webster says: \ˈē-jəs \ or \ˈā-jəs\
Cambridge says: /ˈiː.dʒɪs/ for US
Oxfor says: /ˈiːdʒɪs/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aegis
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/...
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Pronunciation difference between "night rate" and "nitrate"
On English allophones on Wikipedia, there is an example of the pronunciation differences between "night rate" and "nitrate",
Night rate: unreleased [ˈnʌɪt̚.ɹʷeɪt̚] (without a word ...
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Is a schwa ever stressed?
Is there a word in RP (Received Pronunciation) where the stressed vowel sound is a schwa?
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How does one show in IPA that the first sound in "get" and "got" is different?
So one has that "get" /ɡɛt/ and "got" /ɡɒt/ are a minimal pair, for it's only the vocalic phoneme which distinguishes them. However, the first sound is not pronounced/articulated ...
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What's the meaning of /e/, /i:/, /a:/, /z/ and /p/?
Write the words in the right column. Read them.
pink, elephant, teacher, friend, jeans, class, programmer, green,
animals, bed, are, zoos, desk, postman, cream, men, these, monkeys,
dance, pet, read, ...
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What is the difference between [ɐ] and [ʌ]?
In a similar question which asks the difference between /ə/ and /ʌ/, I learned that /ʌ/ occurs in stressed syllables. Now there is another similar vowel sound: /ɐ/ which also occurs in stressed ...
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In IPA transcription, what is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
What is the difference between “ɪ”, "i", “i:”?
Are these two same “ɪ”, "i" and won't be wrong if interchanged while transcripting?
For example: Is it correct to write either /ʃɪp/ ...
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Different /ə/ pronunciation at the end of a word; for example, in "phenomena"
Sorry for my English but I'm a self-taught beginner.
That's why I had been looking at the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) with high hopes until I saw phenomenon’s plural form.
In the singular, ...
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Can the schwa sound predict spelling?
More specifically, I was wondering whether the schwa sound can predict which vowel to use in spelling?
For instance, does the schwa sound predict "a" spelling more than "e" spelling?
I noticed that ...
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Possibility of a near-cure or peer-pure vowel merger in American English
I am a young speaker from Chicago with, I think, a relatively nonspecific General American accent. I’ve noticed something interesting with the vowels in the NEAR and CURE sets. These vowels can be ...
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Why does Oxford American English dictionary use "y" symbol instead of "j"
Oxford American English dictionary uses "y" symbol instead of "j" in their pronunciation guide. Most other dictionaries use j. So are there any differences between the 2 symbols or ...
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Do any speakers have contrastive vowel qualities for the NURSE and lettER sets?
John Wells’ lexical sets are usually useful classifications for determining differences in the realizations of vowels across English accents. Two of the sets are the NURSE set, referring to a stressed ...
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L-epenthesis in “both” and other words
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with some version of a General American accent. I’ve noticed that a small number of words seem to have a nonstandard pronunciation with an inserted lateral sound, ...
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Rounding of the START and PALM vowels
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with a relatively standard General American accent. I have noticed that the vowels in the words “start” and “palm” sound like they have some lip rounding in my ...
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Is /ʌ/ really a stressed schwa, appearing only in stressed syllables?
If /ʌ/ occurs only in stressed syllables, why does punctilious /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/ have it in an unstressed syllable? Same with upbraid /ʌpˈbreɪd/.
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Can vs that ( /kæn/ vs /ðæt/ )
I’ve finally decided to take a look at my English pronunciation and it is being an awesome new world. I am focused on Received Pronunciation (British Standard) and one question comes to mind for which ...
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What is the difference between /a/ and /æ/?
I don't quite understand the difference between /a/ and /æ/.
Google gives the transcription for 'add' as /ad/, while Wiktionary returns /æd/.
Are these sounds actually distinct or is this just two ...
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schwa sound in IPA?
I have a small problem in schwa sound:
When I used Oxford online dictionary and searched "fossil", Its pronunciation is /ˈfɒsl/, but the Cambridge Dictionaries Online gave me:
/ˈfɒs. ə l/
As you can ...
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Do native speakers really always pronounce the voiced th as a /ð/? [closed]
In Can we pronounce the 'th' sound as a d? one answer explained that native speakers often don't pronounce the voiced th excactly like how it ideally should sound.
What I have noticed over ...
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Phonetic symbol - superscript h in Which [duplicate]
Q1) What is the meaning of the small h (superscript h) in the phonetic symbols of which shown in Collins?
ʰwɪ̠tʃ
the small h means 'complete silence' (= just ignore h)
the small h means 'pronounce ...
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What is the IPA of the throat clearing ch sound?
Is there a standard IPA equivalent of the gargle-ish sound you make when you clear phlegm out of your throat, like when you pronounce 'Achmed', where the 'ch' is the 'phlegm' sound?
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General American: very as / ˈvɛɹi / or / ˈveɹi /, more as / ˈmɔɹ / or / ˈmoɹ /, and chair as / t͡ʃɛəɹ / or / t͡ʃeəɹ / [duplicate]
I read this comment on Youtube.
is it possible that the sound / ɹ / tends to close the vowels that
precede it? For example, at least to me, [very] / ˈvɛɹi / sounds more
like / ˈveɹi /, [more] / ˈmɔɹ /...
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What is the difference between /ʌɪ/ and /aɪ/ in English?
Is there any difference between the two diphthongs in English IPA transcriptions?
If I search a word in the Cambridge dictionary, it gives /aɪ/ for both UK English and US English.
For example, the ...
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Is the underlying form of "n" /n/ or /ŋ/ in words ending in -nk?
There are lots of words ending in -nk in Modern English. In (almost) all those words, the -nk is pronounced [-ŋk]. My understanding is that the "n" in spelling represented [n] originally but ...
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What is the technical description of the pronunciation of the "t" in "countdown"?
I've looked up the pronunciation of "countdown" in a few different dictionaries and they all give it as some variation of
/ˈkaʊntˌdaʊn/.
However, the "t" is clearly not pronounced ...
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Primary and secondary stress in IPA transcriptions on Cambridge Dictionary when two words are involved
I am trying to understand IPA transcriptions in https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/ when two words are involved. In particular, their rationale for changing some stresses, compared to the stresses in ...
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Pronunciation: ah, oh, etc
English vowels have several pronunciations so when people try to explain how to pronounce foreign words (without IPA, which is what they should be using ;-)) they add lots of silent Hs and hyphens, e....
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Is the pronunciation of "secret" /ˈsiːkrət/ or /ˈsiːkrɪt/?
Under the entries for secret in Cambridge, Oxford Learner's, and MW Learner's dictionaries, the recordings of the word are clearly saying /ˈsiːkrɪt/ but the IPAs transcriptions are /ˈsiːkrət/.
The ...
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What does a bracketed sound mean in the IPA transcription of a word?
I noticed that some words have a bracketed sound in their transcriptions in some dictionaries, for example, see the following from Lexico:
locate - /lə(ʊ)ˈkeɪt/
open - /ˈəʊp(ə)n/ (I assume here the ...
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Are both "How did you" and "Howdja" used?
How did you get here? [ 'haʊ dɪdʒʊ 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the bus.
How did you get here? [ 'haʊdʒə 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the train.
My question: are both "haʊ dɪdʒʊ" and "haʊdʒə" used in American English?...
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How to pronounce ‘TH’ when it comes right after [s] sound?
It feels like impossible to pronounce something like [sð] (e.g. ‘it's there’). I have heard a lot of natives pronouncing this conjunction, and every time it sounds a bit different for me, so I can't ...
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How would you transcribe and/or describe this vowel?
I'm analyzing the /æ/ vowel sound (also known as 'short A') found in words like cat, dad, or man. I am particularly interested in how that sound is realized in different dialects of American English ...
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'Sag' and 'slant': Is the vowel /æ/ the same in both words?
/sæg/
/slænt/
Transcriptions from Cambridge American English Dictionary
Both the words' IPA transcriptions have an /æ/ symbol. Do those two /æ/s sound the same?
Are they both short or long?
Is /æ/ ...
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2
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Is the short-e pronounced as [e] or [ɛ] in standard English? [duplicate]
In many English dictionaries, I saw the phonetic symbol of short-e is /e/ such as in bed (/bed/). However, I'm taught that the pronunciation of that is /ɛ/. Which one is right in standard English? ...
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